The side went in as underdogs, after Horsham had already beaten them in the finals.

The Mail-Times even was of the belief that Horsham would win, printing the headline "Demons to tame Tigers" leading into the match.

Since then the Tigers have only made one grand final appearance, in 2010 when they lost to the Demons by 58-points.

In the words of 1981 committee member Rob Gersch, "it's been forty years between drinks".

Almost four decades have passed, but Gersch's memory of the historic win hasn't faded.

"We hadn't beaten Horsham and it was virtually won on pretty well the last kick of the day," Gersch said.

"Peter Wallis the wingman, he wasn't the best kick in the side but he kicked from a very tight angle and it went through.

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"Interestingly enough Horsham were not the most popular side in those days and we had the crowd, all the crowd was on our side bar Horsham supporters.

"That certainly helped the day having majority of the people at the ground supporting Nhill, the small club against the big town."

Lance Dickinson was named best on ground for the match and as expected the players and the town celebrated hard for several days after the win.

"Yes it was huge (the celebrations) because premierships unfortunately come few and far between, and again what's probably so important about that one, it was the last premiership that we've won," Gersch said.

"We had the best and fairest the next day and things went on for several days."

How a team from a small community like Nhill came to beat a much bigger club from Horsham, all came down to the clubs recruitment, according to Gersch.

"I guess what actually happened that year, we had a reasonable side, but we had several players come into town," he said.

"Now that hasn't happened in forty years.

"You know we had three school teachers, a guy who bought a pub, brought a bloke with him, someone down in the bank.

"That just doesn't happen today, but in 1981 it happened and we ended up with a fairly handy side.

"We were very fortunate that year that we picked up quality players and that just topped our side off nicely."

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Steve Graham now in his sixties, was one of the school teachers they picked up in 1981 and has since gone on to play over 500 games for the club and played as recently as 2019 for the Tigers' reserves.

His resume includes a Country Championship with Wimmera in 1988 and winning the Toohey Medal for the Wimmera League's best player in that same year.

Graham, who still packs his bag every week just in case he has to play, has fond memories of the victory, although he jokes his recollection of it is starting to fade.

"I can still remember the fact that we went in as underdogs, and we had a reasonable lead up until half time, and they slowly, took it away from us, and it came down to basically the last kick of the day," Graham said.

"They'd (Horsham) basically gone undefeated for the whole season and we had played them a couple of times beforehand during the season and one of the finals, we'd lost all of them.

"But every game we played we were getting just that little bit closer, their margin wasn't as big and yeah so we just sort of knew that we could match them, we just had to do it on the day.

"They were a good side, there's no doubt about that, they were a very strong side."

Nhill will be holding their 40-year anniversary for the 1981 win on June 26 at Davis Park after their match with the Horsham Demons.

Gersch expects a good attendance, despite a lot of players having moved away from Nhill.

"At this stage the indications we've had are that we'll have majority of, if not all come back," Gersch said.

"We have probably six or seven of the lads still around Nhill, but we've got three up in QLD and I know they're all coming back and we've got them spread right across the country.

"But the indications I've had up to date, I haven't heard of anybody that won't be coming.

"Roger Gordon is the only player that's not with us any longer, but what we do with our reunions is we invite the members of the family and so Roger's family will be invited.

"There are several committee that are not with us and their families will be invited."

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